Epitheelcellen spelen een cruciale rol in de longen. Promovendus Ying Wang deed onderzoek naar de effecten van virussen, zoals COVID-19, en sigarettenrook op deze epitheelcellen. ‘We hopen in de toekomst het risico op pandemieën te verkleinen.’

Op deze pagina vind je een overzicht van prijzen en subsidies die in 2025 zijn toegekend aan onze medewerkers en studenten, en de bijzondere benoemingen aan de Universiteit Leiden en andere instellingen.

Nanoplastics kunnen zich ophopen in harten die nog in ontwikkeling zijn. Dat blijkt uit een studie van Leidse biologen. Hun onderzoek naar kippenembryo’s werpt nieuw licht op hoe de piepkleine plastic deeltjes een gevaar vormen voor onze gezondheid.

Je kunt ze niet met het blote oog zien, maar ze vormen zeer waarschijnlijk wel een bedreiging voor onze gezondheid: microplastics. Deze kleine plasticdeeltjes zijn overal in het milieu aanwezig, en ook in ons lichaam. Op wetenschapsplatform The Conversation bespreekt moleculair bioloog Meiru Wang een…

Voor Sterrenkunde is de matchingsactiviteit een verplicht onderdeel van de toelatingsprocedure voor studenten met een Nederlandse vooropleiding.

Grenzen van quantum-theorieën verleggen, dat is precies waar de natuurkundigen van de Universiteit Leiden goed in zijn. Leidse onderzoekers starten acht nieuwe quantum-onderzoeksprojecten binnen het consortium Quantum Limits.

Van waterzuiveringsinstallaties tot een lekkere warme douche, de CO2-uitstoot ten gevolge van het watergebruik in de VS staat gelijk aan dat van 50 miljoen auto’s die een jaar lang rondrijden. In The Washington Post raadpleegt journalist Tik Root verschillende experts om te leren over manieren om ons…

When a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it is torn apart by strong tidal forces in a tidal disruption event (TDE).

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the most abundant class of organic compounds in space. The PAH field evolves from the constant interaction between experimentalists, theorists, modellers and observers. While laboratory research and quantum chemical calculations together set up the molecular…

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-Promotor: M.R. Hogerheijde

This research delves into a region of space known as the interstellar medium (ISM), which is essentially the area between the stars filled with gas and dust.

Het Leids Astronomisch Dispuut Frederik Kaiser is een vereniging die zich inzet voor de studenten die in Leiden sterrenkunde studeren. Daarnaast zijn ze ook erg betrokken bij de publieksactiviteiten in de Oude Sterrewacht en helpen ze bij de ontwikkeling en uitvoering van andere projecten in het geb…

Promotor: Prof.dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens

Carbonaceous asteroids preserve a record of early solar system processes, where minerals and organic molecules, like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), offer clues to planetary evolution and prebiotic chemistry.

Patterned detectors are an existing technology that can be found in almost all color cameras.

Promotor: J. Schaye

The work presented in this thesis is based on ALMA surveys of protoplanetary disks in three star-forming regions: Lupus, OMC-2, and NGC 2024.

This thesis is about the study of hydrocarbons via infrared spectroscopy.

A large diversity of exoplanetary systems has been found, but it is still unclear what drives this diversity.

To study how planetary systems come into existence we study much younger systems still in formation.

The expedition commanded by Nicolas Baudin to Tenerife, Mauritius, Australia, Timor and South Africa in 1800-1804 is fully researched in regard to ornithology.

Promotor: K. Kuijken, Co-Promotor: H. Hoekstra

Many galaxy clusters exhibit bright diffuse radio emission that traces the underlying structure of the intracluster medium (ICM).

This thesis revolves around the electronic spectroscopy of molecules in the laboratory and the search for the carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs).

Galaxies form and live inside dark matter haloes. As a consequence, they are exposed to the tidal fields generated by the surrounding matter distribution: this imprints a preferential direction to the galaxy shapes, which leads to a coherent alignment on physically close galaxies, called intrinsic a…

An Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) is a highly luminous region at the center of a galaxy, powered by the accretion into a supermassive black hole and emitting energy from radio waves to gamma rays, often outshining the host galaxy.

Promotor: A. Achúcarro Co-promotor: A. Boyarsky

The next generation of high-contrast imaging instruments on space-based observatories requires sophisticated wavefront sensing and control in addition to a high-performance coronagraph.

Even though more than 4000 extra-solar planets are known today, only a small fraction of these has been captured in an image. To better understand the planet formation mechanisms in solar-like environments we started the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES).

This thesis aims to enhance our understanding of galaxies by testing theoretical models of galaxy formation against observations, particularly in the cases of extreme systems which have been found to have an excess of baryonic mass in their central regions, in the form of either supermassive black holes…

In astronomy, the interpration of observations and measurements plays a crucial role: we rely purely and fundamentally on the information that reaches us as observers. And 80% of all matter in the universe is undetectable directly.

The focus of the dissertation

In this thesis, we present new laboratory data of interstellar dust analogues.

Galaxies in the local Universe fall into two main categories of spirals and ellipticals. In this Thesis, we explore the structural evolution of galaxies into this bimodal distribution.

Stellar feedback is a crucial ingredient in the evolution of galaxies.

Understanding how galaxies form, interact, and evolve comes largely from comparing theory predictions with observational data. Numerical simulations of galaxies provide the most accurate approach to testing the theory, as they follow the non-linear evolution of gas and dark matter in great detail and…

Within the field of astronomy, understanding how galaxies grow and evolve from the Big Bang to the present day is a challenging and complex question.

We investigate the buildup of galaxies from various vantage points. The first two chapters focus on the stellar content of galaxies, especially the distribution of stellar masses at birth and potential variations therein in various galactic environments.

One of the key discoveries in exoplanet research over the past decade is the abundance of small planets in our Milky Way. Despite their high numbers, our understanding of their atmospheres remains limited, and it is unknown if they possess atmospheres at all.

Planets are formed in disks of gas and dust around young stars.

This thesis explores the theoretical and observational properties of distant massive galaxies that harbour active black holes in their centres and shine brightly at radio wavelengths.

In this thesis, we use low-frequency and high-frequency radio observations to address the following questions regarding quasars: is the radio loud/quiet quasar dichotomy real?

This thesis focuses on protoplanetary disks: flattened structures of gas and dust around young stars in which planets are expected to form and grow.

Supervisor: S.F. Portegies Zwart Co-Supervisor: A.G.A. Brown

De Nederlandse fysicus Jaap Kistemaker slaagde er in 1952 voor de eerste keer in om uranium te verrijken.

In this work, I explore the creation of new methods that optimize simulations of the gravitational N-body problem. Specifically, I take advantage of the recent popularity of Machine Learning methods to find tools that can suit this problem.

Promotor: W. Jaffe, Co-promotor: K. Meisenheimer

Promotores: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Prof.dr. C.P. Dullemond

Promotor: Jelle S. Kaastra Co-promotor: Jelle de Plaa

A dense region of a gaseous and dusty cloud collapses to form a protostar surrounded by a disk and an envelope. This thesis uses both observations and models to study physical and chemical conditions of these protostellar systems which are likely where planets start to form.